Four critical stress points in planning

I was reading an article by Elder and Paul (With Implications for Instruction) recently. It was a little involved, but in a list at the end of the article I saw four things that, in my experience, are prime reasons why plans fail. These may be something to keep in mind as you’re preparing for 2011.

1) Clearly state your goal(s): It’s not so much that you don’t know what you want. But plans usually require the cooperation of other people, and words are slippery things. If you don’t nail them down, you may find that they are interpreted differently by your co-workers. And that makes it difficult-to-impossible to define and execute implementation steps.

2) Clearly differentiate between facts and assumptions: Erase the words “Everyone knows…” from your lexicon. Hard as it is to believe, not everyone shares the same understanding of the world that you do. If you and they realize this, it can be relatively easy to come to agreement. But if you proceed thinking the light is green while they think it’s red, you’re facing confusion at best, and failure at worst. Your plan is, of necessity, based on information. Make sure that information is accurate (ie. provable and unarguable) before you place your bet.

3) Consider alternate points of view: Don’t get me wrong, I think confidence is a good thing. But the smartest people I know keep in mind the possibility, however upsetting it may be, that they might occasionally be wrong. Before they irretrievably commit themselves, they pilot test, reconsider, double-check, think twice, or otherwise consider the consequences of being incorrect. Anyone who thinks they are the sole repository of “right”…isn’t.
4) Distinguish between the significant and the insignificant: When you’re making plans, try to keep it all at the same strategic and/or tactical level. This helps you decide where you should be dedicating your (finite) time and money. A plan for realigning the company’s product portfolio should not also be dealing with redesigning the logo on the letterhead. It’s kind of like political earmarks--don’t let someone tack a grant for the local public television station onto your military appropriation bill!